Shielded
by majorcrazygeekgirl
Summary: He kept to himself, to protect others. She had always been alone, to protect herself. What happens when they meet? What happens when she is given an opportunity not to be alone anymore? How will Julia's life change when she meets the x-men. Follow an OC from First class to Last Stand
1. Chapter 1 - Past is the past

**Disclaimer - I do not own Xmen, any of the films, or any of the storylines or plots. I am only responsible for my OCs**

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"See you later Jules."

"Bye Harry."

Julia waved off her boss as she finished locking up the shop. Waitressing wasn't the most glamorous career but it kept her warm and fed. When she was 4, her parents had died in a house fire caused by a local gang. Having no other family she was put into care, a system she had left the moment she turned 18. Once she had, she spent most of her time on friends' sofas earning enough money in part time jobs to be able to buy a tiny apartment. After that she managed to get a job in a small diner down the street. It wasn't much, but it was hers and she was happy.

Just as she was finishing off mopping the floor, she caught the mop handle on a tray of mugs. As they began to fall, Julia instinctively stuck out her hand to catch them. Suddenly they froze where they were in the air, surrounded by a blue shield. Gasping at what she had done, she quickly retracted her hand, sending all the mugs crashing to the ground again. She closed her eyes and sighed at the new mess she would have to clear up. She would have to be careful about that, if anyone had been there, they would have seen.

It was something she discovered she could do when she was 8. She was receiving one of her regular beatings from the orphanage bully. He had pushed her down and was kicking her repeatedly when suddenly the pain went away. No matter how hard he kicked, his foot never reached her stomach. Looking up, she saw blue sparkles around her and the bully's shocked face looking down at her. Before the bully could question what was happening, they were interrupted by the teachers. Luckily they were so young that the teachers believed the bully's rantings were just due to his imagination. Julia herself believed that too, after all, it wasn't possible. She was just glad the bully was leaving her alone.

Her next experience was a year later. She was out, playing with her school friends in the fields behind her school, when she fell over a ridge. Her friends screamed as she fell 7m towards the ground, but as she hit, she felt no pain. Standing up, she watched as blue fragments floated off her skin and dispersed into the air. Her friends were busy running down the side of the ridge to see what was happening. She told them that she managed to land on her feet, an explanation to why she had no cuts or bruising. She walked around with a fake limp for a week, but was able to convince her friends that nothing odd had happened.

More and more experiences of that sort happened as she got older. She managed to learn to keep it undercover but she was very aware that what she could do was not normal. Going through school was hard enough for a normal child, it was even harder for her. Not fitting in had a completely different meaning for her. She went through fazes of believing she was a monster to thinking she was blessed. By the time she left school, she had just decided to accept it. There was nothing she could do about it so why dwell on it.

Friendships however, were hard to keep. She could never tell people what she could do, she didn't know how they would react, so it also meant she could never be completely comfortable around anyone. That took its toll on her relationships with friends. It was quite lonely. She only wished there was someone she could talk to about it.

As Julia swept up the broken mugs, she heard the bell at the door ring. Standing up, she turned to face the customers.

"I'm sorry, but we've closed for the night."

"We know dear. In fact we've come to see you."

Mistrusting of these strangers, Julia edged towards the staff door when she heard a voice in her head.

 _Don't worry, we're not here to hurt you._

Julia's eyes opened in shock. Did he just speak to her in her mind?

 _Yes I did. You see, we're just like you._

She stared at them in shock, when the second man raised his arm. Suddenly the disused dustpan continued to sweep up the broken mugs on the floor. He smiled smugly as he directed the pan to the bin.

Looking between the smiling men, she grinned.

"It seems we have a lot to talk about."

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 **Author's note - It is my hope that I will use this character throughout ALL the xmen film franchise. How I incorporate her in the later films will be a surprise (hopefully)**


	2. Chapter 2 - New Friends

**Disclaimer - I do not own Xmen or any of its characters or storylines. I am only responsible for my OCs**

 **Sorry for the delay. Coursework/training/exams are taking up a lot of my time at the moment.**

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After speaking with Charles and Erik, Julia learnt that she was by far, not the only gifted person. They told her of a group of people they were getting together, all like her. Confused and alone. She was not going to turn down the opportunity to meet others like her. All her life she had been confused about her abilities and now she has a chance to learn more.

They arrived at the government facility and Julia realised she was the first to arrive. She was beyond nervous, not knowing how to act around these people when they arrived. Using his powers, Charles was able to sense her nerves and so introduced her to his sister Raven. They got on instantly. As they started to get to know each other, other mutants began to arrive. Angel was first. The three girls formed a friendship instantly. They had all had similar experiences growing up, never feeling as though they fitted in, and constantly questioning their abilities. It was refreshing to speak with those who could understand. Sean and Darwin followed shortly and the government engineer, Hank also joined them.

The last to arrive was Alex Summers. Julia was embarrassed to find him so attractive, blushing violently as he entered the room. Her attraction to him was quickly gone when he revealed how rude he was. As the room became quiet once more, Raven had an idea.

"We should think of code names. We're government agents now. We should have secret code names. I want to be called Mystique."

"Damn! I wanted to be called Mystique." Sean teased.

Raven chuckled. "Well, tough. I called it…"

Julia watched as Raven turned herself into a replica of Sean, the others shrieking with surprise.

"…I'm way more mysterious than you."

Julia smiled in amazement, joining the others in applauding. Raven turned back to herself before facing Darwin.

"Darwin, what about you?"

"Well, uh, Darwin's already a nickname, and, you know, sort of fits. Adapt to survive and all. Check this out."

Darwin stood and walked over to a fish tank. Julia and Angel eyed each other suspicious. Julia opened her mouth to speak as he stuck his head in the water but was silenced when she saw gills appear on his neck. Gasping in amazement, they all cheered and laughed at his amazing gift.

"Thank you. Thank you."

Sean was particularly impressed. "That's incredible."

"What about you?"

Crouching over, Sean paused as he thought of a name. "I'm going to be... Banshee."

Hank was curious. "What do you want to be named after a wailing spirit?"

"You might want to cover your ears."

Hesitating, Julia covered her ears as he approached the table. He quickly whistled, creating a large soundwave which shattered the window. The others laughed and applauded at his skill. Julia could not recall a time where she had been so happy. For once, she wasn't alone. Abilities she had feared all her life as being cursed, were being revelled and applauded.

"Your turn."

Julia looked to Sean, pressing her to have her turn. Looking down in her lap, Julia tried to think of an impressive way to show off her skill. Smiling as an idea came to her mind, she stood in front of the group.

"Throw that at me." She said, pointing to a plate in the kitchen.

Alex looked at her doubtfully. "You're not serious?"

Julia smirked, placing her hands on her hips. "What's wrong? Scared?"

Alex stood, walking to the kitchen grinning. "Ok but you asked for it. Ready?"

Julia nodded and braced herself. This worked almost every time, hopefully it would not fail now. That would be embarrassing. Alex threw the plate towards her and she heard the group hold their breath in anticipation. Just before the plate hit her, a barrier formed just on the edge of her skin, breaking the plate on contact.

The crowd cheered as the broken plate fell to the floor and she smiled. It felt so good to have someone appreciate her ability.

"Impressive. I think you've gotta be called Shield." Alex said, walking back to his seat. Julia grinned proudly as she too sat down again.

"What about you?" Julia asked

"My, uh, stage name is Angel."

Sean whistled as Angel stood and turned around.

"Kind of fits."

The seemingly normal tattoos on her back lifted and became wings. It was beautiful.

"You can fly?" Raven asked shocked.

"Uh-huh. And, um..."

Turning into the courtyard, Angel spat a fire ball from her mouth which hit the statue outside, melting it.

Then Angel turned to Hank. "What's your name?"

Hank, bless him, was too embarrassed to answer. Alex, however took the opportunity to make fun of Hank.

"How about Bigfoot?"

Julia glared at him as he laughed at his own joke, unimpressed.

"Well, you know what they say about guys with big feet. And, uh, yours are kind of small." Raven said, standing up for Hank. Julia laughed, grinning at Alex who grumpily looked away. Served him right.

"Okay, now." Darwin spoke up, dispersing the situation. "Alex, what is your gift? What can you do?"

Alex glanced up suddenly before looking back in his lap nervously. "Uh, it's not, um... Um, I just can't do it…" Julia watched the expression on his face as the others spurred him on. He looked scared.

"I can't do it in here."

"Can you do it out there?" Darwin asked as he pointed to the courtyard.

"Why don't you just do it out there?"

"Come on."

"Come on!"

"Alex! Alex! Alex! Alex! Alex! Alex! Alex! Alex!" The others all urged him on as he continued to look unsure.

Julia leant forward and looked him in the eye. "You're not alone here. You can show off."

He smiled at her, standing up and walking into the courtyard.

"All right!"

"That's the spirit."

Alex rubbed his hands in preparation, intriguing the group. "Get down when I tell you."

They all stood behind the wall but edged forward to get a better view.

"Get back. Get back! Whatever."

Spinning his body, Julia watched as Alex created rings of energy, causing anything it came into contact with to combust instantly. It was incredible. Julia applauded loudly as he turned to face them, obviously worried to their response. His nervous look turned to one of joy when he saw the appreciative looks of all the others. He smiled as he locked eyes with Julia, who held out her hands clapping. He bowed in mock before they all walked back inside.

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They spent the rest of the evening getting to know each other and their pasts. She learnt that because of Alex's powers, he had been arrested, while Sean attempted to use his to pick up girls. Surprising. Darwin, like her, had discovered his gifts while being beaten by a bully, it was grounds for great conversation.

As the night when on they became more wild, showing off their powers more as they became quite drunk. Alex was hitting Darwin with a bat, showing off his adaptability while Angel flew around the room with Hank hanging from the chandelier, finally letting lose a bit. Julia and Raven stood on the sofas, dancing and cheering them on. To have fun with their powers is something none of them had ever really experienced before, and it was great. Suddenly, their fun came to a stop when Charles, Moira and Erik entered the room.

"What are you doing?" Moira demanded before pointing into the courtyard. "Who destroyed the statue?"

"It was Alex." Alex shot Hank a _'grateful'_ look as Raven spoke up.

"No. Havok. We have to call him Havok. That's his name now. And we were thinking, you should be Professor X, and you should be Magneto." She said pointing to Charles and Erik.

"Exceptional." Erik said sarcastically, leaving the room with Moira following behind him.

Charles turned to the group, focusing on Raven. "I expect more from you!"

The group all turned to each other guiltily. Charles had brought them all together and they had just disrespected him. Julia felt awful.

"I think I'll go to bed." She said, the others quickly agreeing with her.

As she headed back to her bunk, she found it difficult to keep her guilt when she was so happy with the day's proceedings. She finally belonged somewhere. She quickly fell asleep, a smile still on her face. She would make it up to Charles the next day.

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 **Author's note - Finally another chapter, so sorry for the delay. All reviews welcome :)**


	3. Chapter 3 - Invasion

**Disclaimer - I do not own Xmen or any of Marvel's characters/storylines.**

 **It's been a long time, I'm sorry but that's exam season for you. Hopefully will be more frequent now.**

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The next day Charles, Erik and Moira were on a mission, so they were once more left on their own. They spent the day in the lounge again, for which the window had been fixed. The statue outside, however was still cut in half. Julia pointed it out to Alex when they first entered, cracking a smile as she thought back to the mischief they got up to the day before.

As time went on they all began to open up to each other more, especially Alex. He had been very standoffish when he first arrived, making fun and teasing others, especially Hank, but he seemed to be getting much kinder with them all. It was a defence technique she herself had applied but not in such force.

Angel and Julia spent the majority of the day creating 'moments' for Hank and Raven. Anyone could see they had a connection and the girls were all too excited to push them closer together.

They had quite a chilled evening. Darwin and Alex were playing on an old game while the others talked at the sofas.

"Jesus, man, you are killing me."

"Don't beat yourself up. I've had a lot of spare time."

They were joking around when some agents walked past the windows.

"I didn't know the circus was in town."

Julia rolled her eyes. This was the part of revealing her powers she was dreading, the attention of all the normal people.

"Hey, come on, honey. Give us a little..." One said, flapping his arms, mocking Angel's wings.

"No? Come on, let's see the foot." Hank got up and began to walk to the window as the others continued to glare at them. "There it is. Come on, Big Foot, let's go."

Hank quickly closed the curtains on the protesting guards, much to everyone else's relief. Angel looked especially put down as Raven attempted to comfort her.

"They're just guys being stupid."

Angel scoffed sadly. "Guys being stupid, I can handle. Okay? I've handled that my whole life. But I'd rather a bunch of guys stare at me with my clothes off than the way these ones stare at me."

"At us." Julia said squeezing her hand comfortingly.

Sean suddenly stood looking around the room. Releasing Angel's hand, Julia stood to see what wrong when she started to hear thuds every couple of seconds.

"What was that?" Julia asked.

"I don't know." Darwin said, walking away from the game. "Something doesn't feel right."

Darwin went to the window and reopened the curtains to reveal an empty courtyard. Puzzled, Julia approached closer to the window and looked out. Suddenly a man dropped from the sky and landed right in front of her. Screaming, Julia jumped back, falling into the closest arms to her. Looking up she realised it was Alex who was trying his best to shield her from what was happening. More and more bodies fell from the sky as Alex pulled her further away from the window. She glanced around to see the other boys holding back Angel and Raven as well.

Finding her courage, Julia pulled herself out of Alex's arms and towards the window. Julia saw a man falling and threw out her arms to him, desperately trying to protect him with her shield. Despite her attempts, she was unable to protect any of the men as they hit the ground.

More men appeared in front of the window.

"Get back! Do not leave that room." Crying at her failed attempts to save the men, Alex grabbed her arm and pulled her back away from the window.

Suddenly a red-skinned mutant appeared behind the agents and the young mutants desperately pointed at him.

"Shoot! Shoot!"

The agents open fired as the red mutant disappeared in a puff of smoke, bringing one agent with him. The young mutants waited until suddenly, the missing agent hit the floor, just as the red mutant appeared again to continue his attack on the other agents. As the gunfire shattered the window again, Darwin used his body to shield Angel and Sean while Hank pulled Raven against the wall and Alex dragged a trembling Julia behind the sofa. She felt so hopeless.

They glanced into the courtyard again to see a large tornedo blow through Hank's machine, Cerebro, completely demolishing it.

"Stay here, my ass! Let's go!" Shouted Darwin.

Alex pulled Julia to her feet and they all ran out of the room. Julia's hand in Alex's, he dragged her down the corridor until they were stopped by more agents.

"Get back!"

"We can help! We can help!" Shouted Alex. Julia wasn't sure what use she could be if she couldn't shield anyone else.

Just then, there was an explosion blowing up sections of the building. Raven screamed as they all ran back towards the room. They entered again to see the red mutant still killing agents in the courtyard while a tornado sent one of them through the window, causing the young mutants to huddle in the corner of the room, Alex keeping Julia behind him and Darwin standing in front of them all, arms wide.

The tornado suddenly diffused and a Latino man stepped through the broken window, followed by the red mutant. They were distracted when they heard shots going off from outside in the corridor.

"Wait! You want the mutants? They're right through that door. Just let us normal people go. We're no threat..." There was a thud and then silence as Julia leant further into Alex, weeping, just needing someone to lean on.

A man then calmly stepped into the room, wearing an odd looking helmet. He smirked at the group before turning to his comrades.

"Where's the telepath?"

"Not here."

"Too bad. Well, at least I can take this silly thing off." The man removed his helmet and approached the group.

"Good evening. My name's Sebastian Shaw. And I'm not here to hurt you. My friends, there's a revolution coming. When mankind discovers who we are, what we can do, each of us will face a choice. Be enslaved or rise up to rule."

Julia leant out from behind Alex, controlling her fear to see who this person was. Rule? As in take over the world? He was insane.

"Choose freely, but know that if you are not with us, then by definition, you are against us. So, you can stay and fight for the people who hate and fear you. Or you can join me, and live like kings and queens."

Everyone stood back as he held out his hand towards Angel. Devastated, Julia watched as Angel took his hand and began to walk away from the group.

"Angel?"

She was in shock. Did she not hear how crazy this guy sounded? Alex wasn't happy either. He had just watched these men kill hundreds of men without blinking an eye and now Angel wanted to join them

"Are you kiddin' me?"

Angel turned back to face them, smiling as if her decision made any sense.

"Come on. We don't belong here. And that's nothing to be ashamed of."

Julia watched hopefully as Darwin held out his hand for her, only for Angel to turn and walk away.

Julia looked on astonished at what had just happened. "We have to do something."

As Angel walked through the broken window into the courtyard, Darwin turned to Alex and began muttering to him. Alex began to shove at Darwin but before Julia could ask what was happening, Darwin was calling out to Shaw.

"Stop! I'm coming with you."

Julia could see Angel smiling at his decision but she just couldn't make sense of any of it. This mad man had just come in and murdered all these people. Why would they want to go with him?

"Good choice." Shaw said stepping forward. "So, tell me about your mutation."

"Well, I adapt to survive. So, I guess I'm coming with you."

While Darwin had been talking, Alex had begun to move Julia to the other side of the room. She looked around to see the others following. Julia's eyes opened in understanding as she realised he was leading them slowly to the door. They had a plan.

"I like that."

Shaw gestured for Darwin to join their ranks and he chose to go stand with Angel. Julia could now see their plan, and so prepared herself for what was going to happen next. As Darwin took his place next to Angel he called out.

"Alex!"

"Get out!" Alex cried.

Julia joined the others in running for the door while Alex let out a burst of energy, sending his energy rings towards the invading mutants while Darwin covered Angel.

Unfortunately, they hadn't been prepared for what Shaw could do. Extending his arms Shaw was able to absorb Alex's energy rings.

"Protecting your fellow mutants? That's a noble gesture. Feels good."

Alex stepped back, obviously shocked at Shaw's power. Julia moved forward from the doorway to watch as Darwin made one last attempt to attack Shaw. As he tried to send a punch, Shaw blocked his arm and grabbed his jaw, forcing it open.

"Adapt to this."

Shaw recreated one of Alex's rings in his hand and forced the condensed energy into Darwin's body. As he let go he returned to the other mutants, who all then vanished.

As they disappeared, Julia ran forward to try and help Darwin, only for Alex to grab her arm and hold her back when Darwin warned them to stay away. They watched in horror as Darwin desperately tried to adapt his body to survive, but any form he took, Alex's powers was able to destroy. All the young mutants gathered in the room to watch their friend slowly give up. Darwin gave them one more look before the power was too much.

They all watched as Darwin's body combusted into a large explosion. Julia quickly realised the extent of damage the explosion could cause and stepped forward in front of her friends. Letting out a cry, she threw her arms forward, desperate to protect her friends from harm. She watched as a blue bubble form around them while fire engulfed everything else. The pain and effort required to keep up the shield was agonizing. Julia could barely hear her name being called out because all she could concentrate on was keeping the shield up.

She felt blood begin to drip down her nose as the effort took a toll on her body. As she felt the heat subside, she allowed the shield to drop, collapsing in exhaustion. She was aware of someone catching her before she hit the floor but all she saw was blurry figures before she blacked out.

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